Nakasendo Trail

We’ve got a couple of hours drive today to get to Narai. We’re taking the scenic route again instead of the expressway. We drove through endless tunnels in the way up to Shirakawa go and we are sick of them.

Narai is an old town on the Nakasendo Trail. We’re planning to do the Torii Pass walk between Yabahara and Narai. We’ve done another section of the trail a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

Arrived at our accomodation about midday and in the peak of Saturday tourist traffic. Told our host what we wanted to do and she grabbed our bags and told us hurry hurry the train is leaving soon.

So off we bolt to the train station just in time for the train to Yubahara. Thought we’d be able to get some lunch there before we start but no sign of any 7 elevens anywhere. We did at least buy some water from the vending machine at the station.

Thought we were lost for a little while, because we had to walk through the town but we eventually came upon some signs for the pass.
Started climbing up almost straight away, first through the town then the forest which thankfully was much cooler but even more steep.

Wow that hill was relentless, thank goodness we at least had water and there were a couple of springs on the way you could cool off with.

They were a few other people on the walk and It was nice to see we weren’t the only ones struggling, although we did see one young guy run up the track past us, he was carrying a huge backpack too.

Finally we made it to the top with the torri gates as a reward and then the spring and pass maker! It was all down hill from there which has its own challenges on slippery cobblestones and shale rocks.

3 hours later we were back in Naria, ready for a beer.Read more